Is There No Balm in Gilead?
 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?
why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Jeremiah 8:22

Gilead is a place that many fugitives fled to this region for safety. Jacob fled to Gilead from Laban his father-in-law in Genesis 31:21; the Israelites who feared the Philistines in King Saul's day fled to Gilead in I Samuel 13:7 as did Ishbosheth in II Samuel 2:8-9; David fled to Gilead during Absalom's revolt, II Samuel 17:22,26.

Gilead also contains rich grazing land and obviously would be a great place for 'horses' to spend some time, eh!

Would it not be a strange thing for a person to go to a place of safety and yet find no safety & healing there, amen?

My concern this morning is that it is appearing to me more and more in these times that even though we are in Christ and Christ is in us, many Bible Believing Christians seem to missing the healing safety that the Lord provides.  Jesus Christ is our Gilead and even though we are 'there,' is healing actually taking place?

If so, amen;
but if not,
I am here to say it isn't the Lord's fault!

Since God began our garden series of sermons last Spring all the way through to our recent Judgment Seat of Christ series, we all should have received some great 'healing' by now - young & old!  We should have been greatly encouraged not only in our knowledge of the truth but also in our personal walk and testimony as a Christian.

In fact, we should have been greatly encouraged and guided just in the recent sermons on hope and enduring as a Christian.  God has even given us some 'Hyles-type' sermons in relating to the very practical side of daily living.

God is Good!

As your pastor, I continue to see encouraging things - I believe we are the fasted growing church in Touchet! You know the verse!  II Corinthians 4:6-10 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

Will we be ok with being troubled or will be allow ourselves to get distressed?
Will we be ok with being perplexed or will be allow ourselves to fall into despair?
If persecution does come, will we feel forsaken?
Will we allow ourselves to be 'destroyed' during these challenges
that I believe have developed & continue to develop?

Can we handle it?  NO!
But Jesus Christ can and will - IF only we would allow Him to do his work in us & with us!
 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:19,20

In times of temptation and trial, will anyone here today still fall away, as warned in Luke 8?
Are there still some who will fall at the truth or maybe even at how the truth is delivered?
Are there any in here this morning that will finally be choked to death by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life?

...or are those of you who are still here of the 'solid & good ground' type where NOTHING will drive you away from this Book and from this church family?  NOTHING?  That is quite a tall order, eh!

Things ARE tougher these days than America has seen in a long time - and Pastor Eyore here believes we will see our days and years get even tougher for the Bible Believing Christian!
AMERICA IS GETTING MORE SERIOUS CONTRACTIONS
I Thessalonians 5:1-3 - But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

We have learned from Jeremiah that God is taking away His mercies; His lovingkindness; His peace; His protection.  God is not only removing the voice of the Bridegroom and the voice of the Bride, but He is also removing the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the sound of the millstones and even the light of the candle - the Bible Believing Churches in America, etc.

See Matthew 24:3-27; I John 2:18,22; 4:3; II John 1:7; II Thessalonians 2:7-12; Daniel 8:25; 11:21-29; 36,37

We must remember, however, these pains are not ours!  These are not for us!  see I Thessalonians 5:4-13.

We must not only stay strong for others, we must not only be ready with the fire of the Scriptures, we must also have compassion on others. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. II Timothy 2:24-26

MODERN CHRISTIANITY HAS BECOME A CESSPOOL OF STINK!
There are new bibles, there is a new music, there is a new gospel, there are new churches and they all are bringing forth a new saviour and a new god!  None of this pleases God in the slightest - they err not knowing the Scriptures!

Quote from The Squandered Legacy by David Norris from England - only instead of the past tense for England as brother Norris wrote, I have made it present tense for America and made a few word changes to bring it all home to good ole US of A - America!  Get the full booklet from David Norris It has already happened in England, and we can see the identical fall in America.  Fascinating booklet!

New music, new bibles, new ambitions and a new Gospel!  The testimony of godly believers such as missionaries with tales from foreign parts are now no longer a sufficient draw to pull in the crowds.  Instead, besides the obligatory pop start, or someone who knew someone who knew a pop star, there are business tycoons, high fliers from every walk of life.  Success is the name of the game.  To be a Christian is to be a success in this world and at the same time to be assured of a place in the next.  It is the business man who could be relied upon to open up his check book who is invited onto the boards of the missions and evangelistic associations.

The effect of this on our youngsters in the Churches is to fill them with worldly ambition and to neglect the source of true spiritual wealth. No one is warning: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4) This type of thinking has long since gone out of the window. Important is what men think of you, not your standing with God.

Let us be very clear in what we are saying. The new methodology is evidence of a new Gospel, a shift sideways has ushered in a new message. The Lord Jesus is now a Saviour from everything except sin and the fires of hell. Few have spoken of these things until eventually they were redefined and now denied. Salvation is there for us only to make us happy and put a smile on our face without making any demands on us afterwards for a changed way of life. We sing like the world, we dress like the world, we behave like the world - in all but its worst excesses.

'Worldliness' has disappeared from the evangelical dictionary of approved words. The Christian faith is now something that can be clamped onto a worldly life. There is no need to 'give up anything' we are told. We can just carry on as before, except that now all our problems are suppose to be solved; we are to be happier than everyone else - who are you kidding? Cinemas, theaters, all once taboo, are now frequented by those who at one time would never have dreamed of being seen there. Those objecting are made to feel as out-of-date as elastic sided boots! When television entered every home, the slide downwards accelerated. That which had begun as a gentle slide has now turned into a spiritual nose dive.

Once the need for separation from all that previously was deemed 'worldly' hardly seems to matter any more, separation from apostate Christianity is seen now as superfluous. Hob-nobbing with blaspheming bishops - ones who mock the resurrection as 'a conjuring trick with bones', and with 'Mary-worshipping' child molesting priests has now became all the rage.

The Authorized Version is rapidly disappearing, there is a change in the kind of hymn that is sung in churches - even the Bible Believing Churches are going bluegrass and country!  The neo-evangelical Gospel with a 'reformed' coat of icing has rapidly claimed the ground and so there is little taste for separation from the world.  Dancing, cinema-going, PG, R & X home videos, social drinking, an incessant diet of television is common place today.

A stand against modern Christianity is viewed as narrowmindedness and is openly mocked in print.  Few regard the Bible with any intensity.  There is a widespread ignorance of fundamental Bible truth, even among pastors.  There is a willingness to compromise to attract the young.  Most have a sympathetic stance towards the charismatic movement and the pentecostal 'gifts;' some even practice them.

It is clear that a belief in a literal seven-day creation and a universal flood is a teaching of the past.  Pastors have surrendered these beliefs along with the inspiration of the Scriptures.

"A new religion has been initiated, which is no more Christianity than chalk is cheese; and this religion, being destitute of moral honestly, palms itself off as the old faith with slight improvements, and on this plea usurps pulpits which were erected for gospel preaching."  C.H. Spurgeon

God's Own Thoughts
From the Book of Jeremiah read what God thinks of today's God's Word rejecting Christianity!
Jeremiah 2:11,13 - Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?  but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.  For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
4:22 -  For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
5:13 - And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
5:26-28 - For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.  They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
5:31 - The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
7:8 - Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
18:15 -  Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
23:22,27,32 - But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.  Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.
32:33-35a - And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech;
BIBLE BELIEVERS ARE QUICKLY PICKING UP THE SCENT!
The same rubbish that kept Nehemiah from building the wall is beginning to keep Bible Believers from doing God's work!

Sermons have to be shorter & nicer!
Bible Believing Preachers are starting to use psychology to get folks to respond!
SS programs are feeding kids the leaven of the world to 'keep them happy!'
King James ONLY people are having to leave their own churches!
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs are giving way to bluegrass and country music!
Missionaries are coming back home!
The copyright law is being enforced by Christians and is keeping the truth from going out to the highways and hedges and into all nations!
People are leaving a good church family to do things "their own way" in their own homes - most with a dismal success record!
King James Children are shamefully flocking to the world's ways like vultures flying to dead animals!
Marriages are falling apart on the inside as well as the outside!
The proper roles of husband and wife are almost non-existent in most Bible Believer's homes.

We do struggle - I see it still!  Things are getting to us!
Bible Believers seem to be showing less and less healing and safety in Gilead!

The home, the workplace, around the relatives, in church and even just within their own selves - Bible Believers are wearing out, they are fainting; the struggles are taking their toll and doing their damage!

Are We Getting Tired of the Struggle?
Matthew 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.   Must we receive compassion - do we want pity parties?  We HAVE A SHEPHERD!
Luke 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;  ARE WE NOT PRAYING?
II Corinthians 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  ARE WE NOT BEING RENEWED DAY BY DAY?
Galatians 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.  CAN'T WE WAIT?
Hebrews 12:3: For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.  DO WE NOT CONSIDER HIM?
Revelation 2:3: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.  MAYBE WE AREN'T DOING THESE THINGS FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE!

A.  Are we getting tired of being TOKENS to the world?

Philippians 1:28a -  And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition,

If so, it is only because of our pride.  The world wants to make us feel ashamed. The world uses our pity parties and struggles to prove to them that we are WRONG!   Ask Jeremiah in Jeremiah 20:10!  His own family looked for his halting!

We have nothing to be shamed in regards to our church, our preaching, our pastor, our children, our church family, our homes and our desire to live how God designed them to be, the King James Bible, our music, our standards, our use of the word "ONE"!

B.  Are we getting tired of being tokens for God?
Philippians 1:28b,29 - but to you of salvation, and that of God.  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;
We are to be a token of salvation - the truth, the light - and that includes suffering - not having everything 'our way!'

We are not to be a token of misery, frustration, distress, trouble, unhappiness.
We ought not be unhappy women, wives, mothers!
We ought not be weak worthless whiney men, husbands, fathers!
Teens, you ought not be unhappy, miserable, spoiled, "woe is lonely me" as a teen!

We are HIS children - We belong to Him - we are His sons - we can be kings and priests ruling and reigning with Him. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.  I John 3:1

C.  Are we getting tired of being His examples of His righteous judgment before the world?

II Thessalonians 1:4-6  So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

Our suffering for God now in this world of darkness will be rewarded later in His kingdom of Light!
II Timothy 2:12 - If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
II Timothy 3:12 - Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Ephesians 4:1 -  I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
I Corinthians 8:3 -  But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

D.  Are we getting tired of being used of God to provoke His people to jealousy?

Romans 11:11  I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Remember, before all of this, we were considered 'dogs' to God - we were not even a people!
Why the Struggle?
Here are two things that I believe could be a reason why we allow ourselves to get so troubled!

1.  Just Mad at God!

If we are mad, unhappy, miserable and frustrated and tired of being a Bible Believing Christian, then actually, all we are is mad at God!  I Thessalonians 4:7,8  For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

John 15:20  Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.  Who do we think we are, anyway, to think that we shouldn't do a little suffering these days.  And if it does increase, then amen!  Such an honor!

2.  We Don't Want to Be His Servant!

I Corinthians 6:19,20 - What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
I Corinthians 7:23,24 - Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.
We are called NOT to be servants of corruption!  II Peter 2:19
We are called NOT to be servants to iniquity unto iniquity!  Romans 6:19
We are called NOT to be servants of Sin! Romans 6:16-19
We are called NOT to be servants to uncleanness! Romans 6:19

We can not serve two masters - it can't be done! Luke 16:13

But we ARE called to be:

A. His Servant!
of and to God! Romans 6:22, etc.
Servants of Jesus Christ!
Servants of the church (Romans 16:1)

However, pride makes us servants of all - Mark 9:35)

- A Servant of righteousness unto holiness  Romans 6:18,19

Where Jesus is, we should be, also!  (not visa versa - if we make Him follow us, it quenches the Spirit)
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be:
if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
John 12:26

B. His Friend!
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
John 15:15

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
I John 1:3

C.  His Bride!
 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him:
for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white:
for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Revelation 19:7,8; Ephesians 5, etc.


The Proper Christian Relationship with God AND
a Great Marriage Relationship on Earth

Now, to close this sermon, let's look at those last three points quickly. I see a perfect marriage relationship as well as a relationship with Christ in those three points so we can be the kind of Christian God would have us be.

Servant / Friend / Bride

The same goes for our relationship with Jesus Christ - what kind of servant, friend and bride are we?

These things apply to us Christians as a Christian and in the home!  This is great counseling material, eh!

But wait, I wonder if he have replaced any of those three things with someone other than Jesus Christ? When we say we are His servant, His friend, His bride, but do we turn to these things listed below in part/whole ever?

Feelings? (good and bad)
Food?  (meat that perisheth)
Music? (good and bad)
Jack Hyles, PSR, Dr. Gipp, etc. (Do we make these men out to be more than they are?)
Other notes, sermons, books, sermon tapes, videos, etc. (as good as they are, do they take the place of Jesus Christ?)
Church?  (Is the local church your source of healing and balm?)
Old fashioned values? (modesty, magazines (Crowned with Silver, etc.) hair style, etc.)
Nutritional Emphasis? (physical healing more than important than spiritual)
Politics? (Rush, Shawn, Savage, Reagan, Laura, etc)
Sleep? (instead of reading, etc.)
Websites? (A wealth of information available, but do these folks ever come to the knowledge of the truth?)
Relationship with spouse, children, relatives?  (Is that more important than having one with Jesus Christ?)
Chores and Errands to town? (Do they keep you from reading your Bible, etc?)
Material things? (cares, riches and pleasures of this life - is your affection on things on this earth?)
Booze, TV, Video games and movies, sex, cigarettes, etc.? (Instead of Jesus Christ - horrendous time wasters!)
The Ministry? (happens all the time, so busy with everything but time with the Lord - Mark 8:14-21 - what a rebuke!)
Standards - Your Walk? (is it more important to 'look' right than 'be' right?)
Work?
Our Self?
Ourselves?

Have you replaced Jesus Christ with any of those or other things in your Bible Believing Christianity?  If so, then you are not being healed in Gilead, and that is a shame!  Those things are awful balm!

Jesus Christ is the ONLY ANSWER to these perilous time!
Jesus Christ is the ONLY ANSWER to America's contractions!
Jesus Christ is the ONLY ANSWER to modern Christianity!
Jesus Christ is the ONLY ANSWER to the tough times for Bible Believing Christians!

Jesus Christ is the only balm we need and we get Him applied through this King James 1611 Bible!

You need Him today and you will need Him tomorrow!

He will care for us,
but we must let Him!
See Part II for practical application

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